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The New Terrified America

In the New Terrified America, many parents think that pedophile sexual predators lie in wait around every corner, hoping to snatch their kids away. Some parents won’t let their kids play outside anymore. Some schools won’t allow kids to walk to school without a parent. I think it’s idiotic, but it seems to have become the cultural norm now.
Go read FEAR, FEAR, FEAR… (read the comments, too. And an aside – in the comments note how right-wingers feel perfectly free to just make up stuff about “trial lawyers” and expect to be believed.)
A comment. A child is about 10,000 times more likely to be hurt or killed in a car than kidnapped by a sexual predator. (There are about 100 cases of kidnapping by sexual predators in the United States per year. About 1 in 7700 of us die in cars each year, about 1 in 1000 of us are injured each year.) Motor vehicles are the leading cause of death in children in the United States. So what does this fear cause parents to do? They put their kids in cars.
I watch some television, and last year (leading up to the election) almost every show seemed to be about child molesters…Question for discussion — this really, really serves the interests of authoritarians who want people to be afraid. So is it intentional? Is America being whipped into a frenzy of fear on purpose?